well i am using the msfn guide to make the cd and i followed the instructions to use cdimage.exe as you said it does help however the smallest i got it to at first was 1.2gb from bout 1.8i tihnk it was i took out the lan folders out of XP as i dont need them and the 9x upgrade folders as i dont need them and the lang folder out of 2003 server as i dont need it however the image is now 835 MB (876,257,280 bytes) 135mb too big still looking but unable to see anytihng on reducing the size of 2003 atm